Was cruising along at about 80 on my '95 Fatboy when the engine just died. Whilst slowing down put it on reserve....just in case. Bike just carried on dying.....nothing.
Tried starting again about 30 secs later and fired up and was fine!

Next day after many more miles, it died just after starting the bike up....not even put it in gear. Other electrics all seemed to be on.

Later that day died again while travelling through traffic slowly.
Both these times started back up almost immediately.

I just wondered if there was a common innate poblem with these symtoms?

Checked battery connections.
Covered up positive battery terminal that was exposed.
Changed gas tank caps for some others.

Will try disconnecting emmergency cut-out switch when get a chance.

 

There's a recent thread on a similar problem here, so take a read to see if there are any tips that help you. As is so often the case, when a problem pops up you are not the first!

 

Do you have the petcock with the vacuum diaphragm? Could be malfunctioning? YD

 

Unfortunately this is not the same problem........I have general power.
No gradual fading....just sudden engine cut-out.

 

No, just the traditional petcock.

 

Most of the likely candidates get mentioned in that thread!

 

Splittie,
The standard HD petcock is a vacuum petcock. You may also wany to check the tank vent, and the fuel line. We had a bike doing that and the fuel line had seperated internally and was acting like a "flapper valve".
John

 

Check for fuel right after it happens, check for spark right after it happens, listen for hissing when removing gas cap or keep it loose and see if the problem goes away...just shootin from the hip here...YD

 

Have changed the gas caps, so pretty sure not a venting problem.
Tonight after parking up wouldn't start....... briefly fired once and stopped.
Engine would have been hot and got a smell of fuel from the exhausts.

I could be wrong (have been many a time), but I suspect it's electrical.
Could be a bad wire, but instinct tells me ignition module on the way out?

Mine's a '95 and have a friend with a '93. Hopefully they're the same and can switch to test.

More thoughts welcome.

 

Run a fused jumper from the positive terminal of the battery to the positive terminal on the coil (I have a switched jumper just for this) and see if it stays running, if it does then you have an interment open circuit (loss of voltage) in your ignition circuit. If it doesn't then unhook the white power wire going to the coil, rehook the jumper and try again. If it keeps running then you have a short in your ignition circuit. If it still stops then one of two thing are possible, first you are losing fuel to the engine, so check out the fuel circuit. Or you have something failing in the ignition system. Hope this helps.

John

P.S. the reason you want a fused jumper is if the wire is shorted out you won't fry all the wires!!!!!